In our house, chicken is the meat of choice. The kiddo occasionally digs into some steak or sausage, but for the most part, it's chicken. He prefers dark-meat chicken, and I'm still experimenting with thighs and drumsticks. Meanwhile, the hubby tends to prefer chicken breast, but my toddler is lukewarm — at best — about the light meat. This dinner seemed to be a good compromise because the meat stayed pretty moist. Plus, it's free of dairy, eggs, soy, nuts and gluten too. I served it with plain rice and some sauteed mushrooms.

Involving Kiddos: Hand 'em the tenderizer! It's great (supervised) fun! And older kids will probably enjoy being involved in breading the chicken too. And juicing the lemon — they'll dig that too.

Ingredients

chicken breasts

olive oil

panko crumbs

chicken stock (homemade if you can; it's just better)

lemon (to juice) or lemon juice

capers

What to do

Put chicken breasts in between two pieces of plastic wrap or in a large Ziploc bag. I like the Ziploc bag because it makes it harder for kiddos to get their hands on the raw pieces of meat.

Let kiddos pound the meat with a meat tenderizer. (You can also just buy thinner cuts of meat.) Meanwhile, heat up some olive oil in a skillet on the stove.

Coat the chicken with olive oil, then dip in panko crumbs.

Drop chicken in the pan — about 3 minutes, then flip.

After a few minutes on the second side (basically once the meat it browning), add chicken stock (I used a half a pint for one pound of chicken, but more would've been OK too).

Add the juice from one lemon.

Add capers. I used probably a tablespoon or so.

Let chicken simmer until meat is cooked through and sauce thickens (8-10 minutes-ish).